her Allies by destroying their commerce with America and the
world, by a resort, as was brazenly announced to the world, to a
heartless campaign of ruthless submarine warfare. Therefore, the very
first efforts of the United States were to use every power of the navy
to destroy and neutralize the effect of the lurking submarine and enter
upon a policy of ship construction, which in its gigantic magnitude and
comprehensiveness was unprecedented.

The manner in which the Negro generously contributed to the
effectiveness of this policy is well known to all the world. For the
very first record breaking riveting feat was won by a Negro crew at
Sparrows Point, Maryland. His ability in this field of endeavor was ably
demonstrated in all of the great industrial plants in which his services
were so generously utilized. Heretofore, he had been debarred from
identification in the capacity as a laborer in these plants; but, now,
that war in all of its desperation was threatening the very existence of
the country, the barriers of prejudice gave way and he again proved the
falsity of the statement that the Negro could not handle machinery. The
managers of great shipbuilding plants along the Atlantic seaboard
testified before the Federal Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board that
Negroes had worked on machines, gauged to as fine a degree as one
one-thousandth of an inch with perfect satisfaction.

WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENTS.

To the achievements of the navy, in erecting great training camps,
destroyer and aviation bases, hospitals, in training thousands of men
for oversea duty, the army of merchant ships, the building of a vast
fleet of smaller vessels, the construction of great warehouses at home
and abroad, the manufacture of heavy guns and their mounts, the
production of powder and technical ordnance must be added the most
spectacular achievement of all--the repair of interned German ships, in
all of which the Negro participated with zeal and enthusiasm and in
many instances won the admiration and commendation of his superior
officers.

When these vessels, many of them of the largest type of trans-Atlantic
liners, were taken over by our government, it was found that the
machinery of several had been seriously damaged by the maliciously
planned and carefully executed sabotage of the crews. The principal
injury was to the cylinders and other parts of the engines, and, as the
passenger ships were potent factors in the transportation of